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(6/17/08) So earlier this month we had a big storm and lost power for almost a week. We were bored. The kids were bored. So Mr. Rabbit bought the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game and we set it up on the living room floor and surrounded ourselves with candles. I was dungeon master.

Now Dungeons & Dragons is something I always wanted to get into as a kid but nobody ever wanted to play with me because I was a girl. Mr. Rabbit said he tried to get into it, but the game he tried to get into was already established and he had a hard time catching up with all the other more advanced players and the dungeon master wasn’t about helping a newbie along. So, neither of us had any significant experience. So even though we were always kind of interested, we just never got into it. It was too complicated.

This set though has a beginning adventure all mapped out, complete with all the maps and treasure counters you need- pre-created characters and pre-painted figures for all the characters in the adventure. It also comes with a set of dice. The mini dungeon master book walked me through every detail of leading the adventure and the character booklets explained to Mr. Rabbit and the kids exactly how to deal with whatever situation their character might face. After a few encounters, I even started getting creative and deviating from the script a bit, to good effect.

My pre-teen son was immediately down with the idea, but my teenage daughter sat out the first couple games. After awhile though, she decided it sounded like it might not suck too bad after all and we were easily able to incorporate her new character into the game. Next thing you know, both kids are asking when we can play. Can we play today? Yea. They’re into it.

Nothing says family togetherness like banding together to beat a giant gargoyle or figuring out how to defeat re-spawning undead minions. Granted, I’m probably not the best dungeon master. I keep dropping hints like, “Are you sure?” and “You know, there’s a puzzle here.” Which is probably a dungeon master nono. But it sure is fun chasing your kids around a dungeon with a gargoyle.

My son is eager to dungeon master the next adventure and everybody is concocting new and unique adventures in their heads. Cries of “Oh I just got a great idea for a D&D adventure” is now common around the kitchen table. I’m loving it. Get those creative juices flowing!!

Am I afraid D&D is going to make my kids kill themselves if their character dies? No. My kids have more pressing reasons to kill themselves. Like school, friends, boyfriends and the fact that life in general sucks and I won’t buy them that cool new video game or a car. Besides, if their character dies another family member’s character immediately runs over to revive them, so no worries. I’m also not afraid of conjuring real demons because… well, I know how to conjure demons already and it’s not like that. I’m also not afraid they’ll be inducted into a witches coven because, well, the local coven meets at my house already. So hah.

I think that D&D occult stuff is funny because there’s nothing in it that’s really occult. You just say “I’m going to cast this spell” and roll the dice. There’s no dice in real magic… Not real dice anyway.